This piece is based on an episode of psychosis where I am the Greek God of Wine l, Dionysus, in human form, exploring the British isles and spreading joy and freedom to its peoples. 

The year is either late AD 40 or very early AD 41. I was drinking wine with friends on the beachfront and admiring the ocean’s beauty on quite a bleak winters day. We were wrapped up nicely and sat around a fire that blew and hissed as it was hit by the wind and freezing rain. 

I looked up and noticed something odd kind of slowly writhing in the water. We ran in and grabbed what turned out to be a young lad and after doing our best to crudely resuscitate him we brought him to the fire, wrapping him in furs. When he regained his strength he had an incredible story to tell. 

Our new friend was a young Roman soldier called ‘Antonius’. It turned out he had been sent over to collect intelligence on possible landing sites, the local people and local fresh water / food locations by the generals of the Roman Emperor Caligula. 

Caligula was planning an invasion of Britain that would have taken place in AD 41 but was then cancelled leading to Caligula’s downfall. 

Antonius had been swept by the storm from his original landing site way south of where we found him, around the coast and into the relative safety and shelter of Hunstanton. He stayed with us quite a while after we found him, quickly becoming one of the team. We really liked him (despite the fact that he was effectively leading an invasion force against us) and he slotted in brilliantly. 

He eventually left us, determined to get back to his home land. We were in two minds whether to let him get home as we were reasonably sure he’d report the intelligence he’d found. We ended up deciding that we liked him so much it was worth potentially being invaded if we could keep him as our mate. After he left we never saw or heard from him again and have no idea what happened to him, sadly. 

This piece is based on the Baywatch rescue ‘can’ that features prominently in the series as well as the small amphora that was holding my wine the day that I found him. During the psychosis the two items blur into each other and become interchangeable. It’s this that I focused on and designed it with a weathered patina that I personally love from things that have weathered the years and are still surviving.